BP Short Stories
by SkullMate
Summary: A series of short stories set in the 'Bleached Past' universe. Rated T for language and violence
1. Bad Books

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, both series belong to their respective creators.**

Alright guys, this is obviously the first chapter in a series of short stories from my other work "Bleached Past". This series of works will involve situations from all over, between different characters at different times. They will have a wide range of genres from fluff and humor to drama and angst. It's pretty much a dumping ground for me. The cross overs for "His Dark Materials" and "The Golden Compass" will also most likely be kept here, though i may end up making another thing for them entirely. Haven't decided yet.

Now onto the story!

I was hit with this idea after seeing the latest young justice. Goddammit Wally.

**Time**: This short takes place a couple months or so before Robin is placed into the 10th Division.

* * *

"Robin, I'm going to need you to help me with paperwork soon." Hitsugaya said, not looking up from his work.

Robin, who was laying on the couch across from the captains desk, made a dismissive motion with his hand, the other holding open a book. "Yeah, just give me a minute, It's finally getting to the good par...oh." His sentence dropped off, causing the captain to look up.

"Robin?" The younger man was staring at the book with a straight face, absolutely still. The silence hung for a moment.

"_Oh._" He said once again, then abruptly stood up and walked unsteadily towards the door, surprising the other.

"Robin, where are you going?" The man asked, standing as the other left. After a moment he approached the couch and, picking up the discarded book, read one of the slightly dog eared pages. After finishing, he sighed and dropped it into one of his pockets, trailing out the door after his friend.

As he exited his office and saw no trace of the boy, he scrubbed his face and muttered something about idiots. As Hitsugaya began his search for Robin, he wondered how far off schedule he would be put for paperwork.

Five minutes down the road he came upon a severely puzzled looking Momo.

"Ah, Momo, have you seen-"

"Robin?" She interrupted, looking down the road. "Yes, I have. He passed me a couple minutes ago, but when I called out to him he just kept walking...I'm not sure he even noticed me. Do you know what's wrong with him Shiro-chan?"

Her friend merely groaned at the hated nickname and handed her the book from his pocket. She opened it to the still marked page and took a moment to read.

"Oh! so this means he's-"

"That's what I'm thinking. Now if you aren't busy, I would appreciate some help finding him before he does something drastically stupid." The other girl merely giggled and nodded, handing the book back.

"He took a turn to the left, so we should start there." She smiled and twirled in that direction, taking the lead.

It took another ten minutes and three wrong turns, but following the sound of yelling finally led them to the right place.

Robin lay face down on the side of the road, unmoving, even to the harsh pokes and prods of Renji's Zanpakuto. Renji and Rukia, who were quizzically standing-or kneeling in the red-head's case- by the boys side, looked up at their arrival. Rukia quickly approached them, turning her head to the boy in concern.

"Do you guys know what's wrong with Robin? He won't get up and isn't answering us at all. Is he sick or something?"

"Robin's fine. He's just being dramatic." The captain stated, walking towards the prostrate youth.

"Ya hear that kid? Stop bein' a drama queen an get up." Renji jeered, jabbing him in the cheek with a finger. A yell suddenly ripped from his lips as the kid turned his face and viciously bit the man's finger.

"What the hell man! _Get him off!_" But Robin's hold was strong, a demonic glint appearing in his one visible eye. Renji pulled in vain at his captured appendage, sighing in relief only when Hitsugaya smacked his friend over the head and shoved the book cover in his face. The boy hissed like a repelled demon, recoiled immediately and rolled away, stopping a couple feet over face down once again.

"...The fuck was that?" Renji said in disbelief. "What the hell just happened?" Then his expression clouded into anger and he made to step forward, intent on revenge. The girls could be heard in the background laughing. "Shut up, that wasn't funny!" He barked at them, causing Rukia to laugh harder and Momo to slightly stifle her giggles.

"Just wait till I get my hands on you, ya brat." He growled, but was stopped as Toshiro laid a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll handle this." He stood above his friend, hands on hips and glare on notch ten. "Robin?" He received no answer. "Robin." he warned.

"mmfhs" The other answered.

"What?"

"mmfhs"

A tick mark appeared on his forehead and he resisted the urge to hit the boy again. "Ok, up. Now. Get up."

"mo" came the muffled answer.

"If you're seriously going to do this, at least speak clearly."

"fine."

"Good. Now stand up and act your age dammit."

"No."

Hitsugaya pinched the bridge of his nose and slowly breathed out, trying to keep his temper in check. "Really Robin? It's a _book_ for Kami sake! Whatever happens in it, is of absolutely no importance to-" He stopped as a sound started below, muffled and quiet at first, but quickly building in pitch and intensity until it was a harsh noise caught between a whine and a scream; Though thankfully still muffled by the ground. As the sound was apparently coming from a very distraught Robin, Hitsugaya's patience finally snapped. After a couple moments he picked up the boy by the back of his Academy uniform and shook him harshly. Switching his hold to the limp boys shoulders, he placed Robins feet back on the ground, though the boy made no move to stand for himself.

"Robin this is incredibly childish and I will get rid of this book if you do not get back to my office _right now_."

"I don't _care" _The brunette groaned, his head flipping limply, "She's _dead!_ You can't just kill off a character of such, such _importance like that!_ It's just not done!" Hitsugaya glanced at the book he'd dropped on the ground with distaste.

"Well from what I read it _has_ been done. So get over it."

"No. Nope. Not happening. I just want to lay on the ground and scream, thank you very much." Robin lifted his head to glare lightly at his friend.

"Fine." Toshiro dropped the drama queen, "I'm done. Do what you like." Much to the captains satisfaction, Robin looked surprised as he met the ground, but quickly rolled back over to his previous position.

Toshiro grabbed the book and flipped to the end, reading the last two pages. "She's still dead by the end of the book, in fact, it ends with the main character realizing she might have been in love with her murdered friend." He smirked as Robin emitted a groaning shriek in response and covered his ears.

"Alright," Renji said, "what the hell's going on?" The 10th division captain held up the book and turned to the page that started the ordeal. The others quickly gathered around him to read.

"Hey, isn't that-" Rukia started.

"Uh-huh." Hitsugaya answered.

"So this is what he bein' a total baby abo-" Renji groaned.

"Yep!" Hinamori smiled.

"Sometimes I wonder if he's really the genius everyone says he is." Toshiro stated.

They turned their heads as yelling was heard down the road. "I feel the presence of a moron." He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

A moment later, they spotted the shining head Ikkaku Madarame running right at them, a panting Hanataro not far behind.

"Wow, captain," Renji whistled, "You're good."

"It's because I spend too much of my time around you people. You become easier to spot by the day."

"Are you insulting m-"

"Shut up Renji." Rukia commanded. The other sulkily complied.

Ikkaku stopped in front of them, smiling. "I heard screaming."

Hitsugaya threw his hands up in an 'I give up' gesture, the book flying with it. He walked to the side of the road and rubbed his temples tiredly. The paperback flew a good distance from them all and landed with a sad 'wumph'.

"M-Madarame-san!" Hanataro wheezed, stopping next to the man stand resting his hands on knees. "You didn-you didn't let me f-finish healing yo-you." As was evident by the bandages around Ikkaku's torso and aarms, some of them hanging off already.

"I told ya, I'm fine! A couple scratches can't keep me down!" He laughed raciously.

"I d-don't think being stabbed c-counts as-as a scratch." Th boy interjected, slowly catching his breath. Ikkaku simply waved him off and went to antagonize Renji. "W-wait! I still need to-ah, never mind..." He sighed. The healer suddenly noticed the discarded book on the ground and picked it up, smiling when he saw the title. "Oh! Isn't this the next book in the series? I haven't been able to read it yet..." He murmured, reading the page it was dogeared to.

Hitsugaya watched as Hanataro's face slowly turned pale, his smile freezing. The book dropped from his hands and he slunk quietly over to Robin, sitting with his head on his knees as an air of despair surrounded him, joining Robin's pre-existing one.

It was a well known fact that both boys were practically obsessed with that book series, though no one else could seem to get into it. It was a series written by humans from America, and started serialization a couple months before Robin came to soul society, meaning that new installments were still being written for it. The first book had been brought back by Sasakibe, who'd thought it might interest the boy. Unfortunately he was right.

Hitsugaya had tried to read it at one point, but couldn't find it in himself to get past the third chapter of the first book. Though, now that he thought about it, there was one other person who loved the series just as much as the two boys. They actually got together every once in awhile to talk about the characters and what they thought might happen next. To imagine how that person would react to this apparently soul damaging chapter...

"Burn the book." Silence followed his command. He looked around and noticed that everyone had frozen, some mid-argument or threatening gesture. Even Robin and Hanataro glanced over.

"What?" Renji asked, his fist inches from Ikkaku's face.

"Burn the book. Now." He insisted.

"Why?" Rukia asked quizzically.

"You all know the identity of the last person he loves that series, right?" They nodded in affirmation. "And you saw how they reacted to the book-" He pointed to Robin and Hanataro, who both glared back; it was ridiculous, _Hanataro _was actually _glaring_, "Think of how badly _he'll_ react to it! _Burn the damned thing._" It seemed to take a moment to process, and all those gathered quite suddenly turned marble white, but before they could turn and dive for it, a new voice interrupted.

"Well aren't you all lively today. Oh? What's this?" They could hear the sound of something being picked up. "Oh, I wasn't aware the next book had come out!" The voice said happily. All heads in the immediate vicinity mechanically turned towards the speaker, paling further at their identity.

Mere feet away stood the captain of the 13th Division, Jushiro Ukitake, flanked by his ever-present third seats. In his hands rested the battered and dirty reason for Hitsugaya's terrible day, opened to a very familiar dogeared page. The old Captains eyes whipped excitedly though the black words.

"Taichou no!" Rukia yelled, followed by warnings from the other Shinigami, though they were all too little, too late.

Ukitake had frozen, slowly paling as he reached the end of the page. The book dropped from his grasp, smile never moving from his face. As time passed and he slowly straightened himself, Hitsugaya briefly wondered how the captain would react. Maybe he would simply walk away? Perhaps he might talk some sense into the two other boys; After all, Ukitake was a grown, mature man. What's the worst that could happen?

They were all startled when the man suddenly fainted into the arms of his 3rd seats.

Jushiro was sentenced to four days of strict bed rest.

Both the boys and captains lasted through another two days of depression.

All three were banned from ever even touching the book series ever again.

* * *

Alright, the first one's down! And Chapter twelve of "Bleached Past" is in the process of being written!

Also, I did not use a pre-existing book series in this short, and just made up pieces of one for this purpose.

Feel free to contact me if you find anything confusing


	2. Slow Days They Were Super

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, both series belong to their respective creators.**

Small drabble, something calm and a tad fluffy to even out the future angst and Bleached Past.

**Time:**Around the summer of Robin's first year in the Seireitei

* * *

It was a blistering summer day in the Soul Society, the sun beat down upon the Seireitei with it's unforgiving gaze. It was probably the hottest day of the year. The streets would surely burst into flame as Shinigami screamed and ran for their lives; Someone was sure to die this day.

Or at least, that's what Hitsugaya told himself as he made a B-line for the shelter of the 10th Division. Damn Kurotsuchi for making _him_ drop off those reports instead of some poor unseated Shinigami.

In reality, it was in fact very hot. Unusually so, and while death and flaming streets where very unlikely, heat strokes were a very real possibility. The Seireitei seemed to have slowed to a snails pace in the wake of of the overwhelming heat, and the captain watched with disdain as some Shinigami simply gave up and laid themselves in the street, surrendering to the blaze.

He sighed in relief as the barracks came into hazy view down the road and sped up, trying his hardest _not_ to sweat like an undignified whelp.

Captains don't sweat.

They just don't.

The liquid beading his forehead was obviously regular, not-salty water to keep himself cool.

As he finally crossed the threshold, it became increasingly obvious that nothing was going to get done today, both from him and his division. Even the thought of approaching his paperwork brought on a headache. He could see men from the 10th scattered around, seeming all but dead to the world. The ice-user resisted the urge to drop to the ground and whine about the heat.

He wished they had a pool. He wished it was winter.

The only option to escape the heat was probably to find some dark, secluded room and hide there forever, because Hitsugaya _really_ _despised the heat._

When the captain finally managed to find that room, it was already occupied. Bottles (mostly Sake) littered the floor, along with a worrying amount of clothes. Actually, the scene could be mistaken for a massive orgy if it weren't for the fact that everyone was asleep and had at least one article of clothing on.

_Most of these people weren't even in his division!_

No, scratch that, only one of these people were in his division.

Renji and Ikkaku were knocked out on opposite sides of the low, square table which supported their lower halves and occasionally tried to kick each other in the face. Kira and Hisagi were near one of the open shoji, practically on top of each other in their drunken stupor with Kira's foot resting on top of Renji's chest. Yumichika sat against the wall, closest to his incurably bald friend. The last three were nearest to one of the medium sized battery-powered fans that littered the room-_where the hell did they get fans from? _

Rangiku was passed out, spread-eagle on the ground with a half empty sake bottle still in hand. The other lay over Robin who was using her stomach as a pillow, as was Rukia who curled up on the womans other side.

He noticed that the heat had forced even _Robin _to shed the top of his academy shihakusho, revealing the tight black sleeveless shirt underneath. Hitsugaya groaned when Kira's foot accidentally connected with Renji's face, causing the man to kick viciously in his sleep and hit Ikkaku, who murmured swears and started to jab back.

"This is my life." He monotoned, "Where did I go wrong." Though the room did seem much cooler than anywhere else, and there was a _very_ inviting (not that he would _ever_ admit it out loud) space next to his small friend and lieutenant...He yawned as the wind chimes sang. Yes indeed, it looked _very _comfortable right about now.

_Bad Toshiro! No! Bad captain!_ He sighed and scrubbed a hand down his face, contemplating the pros and cons of sitting down while his body made its want for rest known.

Pros: Relaxation, no paper work, sleep, somewhat escaping the heat.

Cons: Undone paper work, the amount of shit he would definitely receive from the rooms occupants when they awoke, giving in to the heat and showing weakness...

"Ya gonna join us Captain?" He startled at the soft murmur, followed by a yawn. His lieutenant smiled up at him lazily, patting her chest "Plen'y a room..." She yawned again. When he simply scowled at her she continued. "C'mon! This is sleepin' weather. No one'll blame ya for...*Yawn*...takin' a break." Toshiro couldn't quite keep his own yawn down after hers.

Damn loud, contagious, deep breath-sigh things. He let out a breath and stepped further into the room, closing the door after. Maybe a small nap wouldn't hurt, it's not like the rest of the Gotei 13 was actually doing work either.

"Y'know Cap'n, you can take off your-"

"No." Stripping was where he drew the line. The captain released Hyorinmaru from his back and slid down the wall, noting dimly that one of the fans was labeled '11th Division' as he turned it towards himself. Well it wasn't theirs anymore, suckers.

"Aw, not gonna join the puppy pile?" Rangiku whined, patting the spot he had eyed previously.

"You're lucky I'm even here. Don't push it." He replied, nudging her head with his foot. The man had too much pride to get any closer. A small chuckle accompanied the movement and he looked over to Robin, who gazed at the captain with one half-open eye before giving a lazy wave and going back to sleep, hands clasped over his stomach. Toshiro gave his own small huff of amusement, before he too, closed his eyes.

The sound of wind chimes and nature filled the air, along with small murmurs from the rooms sleeping occupants. It was surprisingly peaceful.

It was better than paperwork, anyway.


	3. Fight it Out!

Back again!

Thought I'd bring in an action shot to work on my fighting scenes.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing.

**Time:** I'd say about half a year into academy life, give or take.

* * *

Robin was considered a prodigy about three months after enrollment at Shino Academy. In both general and Shinigami studies, he came out at the top of his class no matter what(That is, excluding his Kido class). Having been placed in the advanced class, he was already expected to be slated for early graduation, following in the footsteps of only three other Shinigami before him. That being said, his area of expertise was definitely Hakuda; Otherwise known as hand to hand combat.

Of course, no one knew exactly _how_ much of an expert he was until _it_ happened.

It being the School-wide annual Hakuda competition. Once a year the school held a series of exhibition matches in order to test or show off the students combat skills. No swords, no Kido, not even Reiatsu attacks and Hoho were allowed; Only good old fashioned hand-to-hand combat.

It was also generally seen as scouting grounds for the Captains, who often showed up to see who was really 'worthy' of being in their division and who to keep an eye on.

The tournament was set up so students could enter in two ways, according to year, and according to skill.

In the year category, students were randomly matched up with peers of the same grade, regardless of class placement. Matches were picked and fought until only two competitors remained, and the winner became the champion for their grade.

The skill based matches were tougher. Fighters were randomly picked, regardless of year, meaning a first year could easily end up fighting a sixth year. Only those who were sure of their abilities were recommended to enter the skill category (usually meaning only 3rd to 6th years entered). Matches continued as one on one until around twenty students were left, and then switched to arena brawl, where all contenders fought to the last man standing.

For both categories, match winners could be determined through the surrender of one opponent, or the inability to keep fighting. Kill hits and breaking of vital bones/organs was prohibited. There was no prize for being an overall winner, only pride in knowing you are the best of the best among your peers.

The tournament usually lasted for about a week and was free for all Shinigami to watch.

Hitsugaya had known his friend entered the year category, but his duties as captain kept him from seeing all but Robin's final match, which had also been the final match for the first year classes. He had unsurprisingly swept through opponents like water down a stream, and it came as no real shock when he won the final match by taking down the guy with a simple nerve pinch, taking the title of first year champion.

Though first year matches were never very interesting anyway, more like cat-fights and street brawls.

Hitsugaya _was_ surprised however, when he heard that Robin also entered the skill category as one of three first years. Unfortunately, he didn't learn this until all preliminary matches had passed, leaving only the arena brawl.

"I can't believe he never told me!" The captain fumed, finding his seat for the fight. The arena was large and circular, with wooden bleachers circling around it at various levels. At one side, the bleachers straightened out and stood more elevated than the others; this part was perfect for watching the matches and was sectioned off for captains and vice-captains, along with a custom seat for the sou-taichou. This was where Hitsugaya and Matsumoto now sat, along with a good number of the other captains and their subordinates. Seeing as the fight could take awhile, many brought their own snacks and refreshments.

"I wasn't even planning on showing up until you told me!" He continued. Most captains didn't even bother showing until the brawl anyway, which was the most exciting part of the tournament.

"Well, uh, funny story about that! it _may_ have been a last minute decision," Matsumoto started, looking anywhere but her pissed off captain, "And Robin _may_ have, um, asked me to tell you at the beginning, but I was, well, I was-"

"You were getting drunk, weren't you?" He ground out, twitching slightly, "Rangiku-"

"Oh! Shh! Sh! It's about to start!" She squealed, nudging her captain in the arm. Said man sighed and turned his attention to the arena as a sudden hush fell over the crowd. All twenty fighters entered the arena, each spreading out and claiming their own starting point at the edge of the circle.

A quick round of cheers went out as they took up fighting stances.

"Whoo! Go Robin! That's my otouto!" Rangiku called out, cupping one hand around her mouth and waving the other. A couple similar cheers went out, though it was mostly Renji and Ikkaku telling him to kick ass. Hitsugaya stayed obstinately silent.

The entire arena hushed again as the captain commander raised his hand.

"The fight goes on till the last man standing. No maiming or killing opponents. Begin!" His hand fell away, and a tense moment of silence filled the air, until one of the fighters took a step forward and let out a yell, prompting the others into action.

Unsurprisingly, Robin immediately became a prime target. Despite being the first year champion, he was still small, young, and well, a _first year._ Meaning he was new to the fighting scene, and though his skills were enough to luck through the preliminaries, there was no way they could hold up in the brawl. He would fall just like the other two from his grade, right?

Not to mention, a few of his bullies were among the fighters.

Now, being labeled a prodigy has the tendency to put an immediate target on a persons back. The effects of that target being at least one of the following three: Being isolated by ones peers, being readily accepted by ones peers, or being singled out and antagonized by ones peers.

Robin was a mixture of the first and third. He had three things working against him during school hours: one, he didn't have noble origins or backing (which meant no upstairs backlash), two, he had an odd appearance and small, unassuming stature, and three, he was a prodigy (And admittedly, just a _little_ bit of a harmless show off) It didn't really matter that he had friends in the divisions, as long as they didn't find out. (and Robin liked to deal with is own problems, thank you very much)

So, it was really no surprise when he became an immediate target.

It was a surprise however, when he struck back harder than they thought him possible. The first year classes were more about learning and mastering the basics, than learning how to absolutely trounce an enemy, so it wasn't really thought of to test exactly how far Robin's fighting prowess extended.

Turns out it extended pretty far.

The first contender approached with the intention of a feigned punch and leg sweep, which was quickly countered as Robin grabbed the crouching mans shoulders and used him as leverage for a flip, kicking the next fighter in the chest and delivering a devastating leg sweep for the original once he reached the sandy floor.

As both men got back up and aimed another attack at the boy between them, he gracefully spun out of the way, causing their attacks to hit each other instead, taking both down for the count.

"Third years." Robin quietly scoffed, settling into an _advanced_ defensive stance as he was quickly surrounded by seven others. "Wow, Koji-san," He said sarcastically, "I can't believe you're ganging up on me!"

Koji smirked back, "We decided to take out the weakest before the fight got too rough. Figured we'd spare you the pain." He proudly held the title of one of Robin's most...determined, antagonizers.

"Yeah, I'm sure they thought the same." Robin pointed towards the two unconscious 3rd years. "Come and get it." He teased, moving his fingers in a 'come hither' motion.

"You're asking for it, runt!" Koji laughed, launching forward.

"I can't believe they're teaming on him!" Rangiku groaned from her seat in the stands. "That's cheap!"

"Yes..." Hitsugaya murmured. The other contestants were all taking each other on in groups of two's and three's, not groups of seven on one.

Though any worries they had for the boy proved unfounded, as he sprang into action.

Instead of attacking the group, he built up some speed and went to the ground, sliding straight through one mans legs and out of the circle of attackers. On the way out, he grabbed the bottom of the mans' hakama and pulled, forcing him to trip and fall onto his allies.

Robin cackled as he rolled to his feet and was running again, the others not far behind.

He ran through another group of three that were beating each other down, causing the two groups to become entangled and his attackers to go from seven members to four.

"That was smart," Rangiku commented, "tricking the others into fighting each other." Her captain merely nodded as he watched.

"But where's he running to?" He asked. The fighters were mostly congregated on one side of the arena, which his friend was running away from. His four attackers followed diligently. Hitsugaya watched as the boy started picking up speed, and looked back as Ikkaku took the chance to yell his 'encouragement' to the kid.

"Where ya goin', ya brat! The fights that way!" A few wondering murmurs rose from the crowd after his comment.

"I'm sure the boy knows what he's doing." A masculine voice chimed in. "Have a little faith, hm?"

They looked over to see a black cat curled next to Sui-Feng, yellow eyes trained on the match.

"Y-Yoruichi-san?" Rukia stuttered, surprised. "When did you get here?"

The response was a rumbling chuckle from the cat. "I'd never miss the Hakuda tournament." She flicked her tail. "Now, watch the boy."

They quickly did so, and noticed that their friend had gained an impressive amount of speed as he approached one of the support pillars connected to the arena wall. To the crowds amazement, he scaled the wall seven or eight feet up, then kicked off, curling into a ball and flipping several times.

"Show-off." Hitsugaya softly scoffed, watching with interest as unfurled on the down-turn, straightening out to land right on top of one of his pursuers, feet-first.

The landing pad held up his forearms for defense, only enough to protect his head. Robin barreled down like a bullet, landing on the mans arms with enough force to bruise (possibly fracture), and flipped off, sending the man stumbling back. Robin quickly landed and followed up with a harsh round-house kick to the sternum, ending by way of a black-out inducing upper-cut.

He gave no time for his other opponents to recover from their surprise, immediately ducking in and elbowing one in the solar plexus; then he took the man by the front of his uniform and_ hefted_, somehow managing to throw him straight into another fighter. They went down with a yell and a wheeze, not even bothering to get back up.

The crowd was silent for a moment, then burst into cheers; thereby announcing that while there were other fighters in the arena, Robin had somehow become the focal point of attraction. The boy took a moment to glance at the stands, hearing his adoptive sister calling out encouragements.

"Match is over here, runt!" A straight-palm thrust came his way, missing by a hair as he dodged back. "Don't get cocky and think you can stop paying attention." Koji warned, his body taught as a wire.

Robin settled back, looking his opponent in the eye. "Me? Never." He knew never to slack off or let his ego get in the way. Koji was in his last year of schooling and runner-up in the 6th year category, meaning he had more experience, probably more knowledge of techniques. Not to mention he was a bit of a hulkling body(and strength)-wise, and came from the rougher parts of Rukongai, which seemed to have taken a negative toll on his perception of others.

If Robin wanted to win, which he did, he couldn't _afford_ to slack off. He'd had the drop on the other fighters, since no one expected him to do so well, but caution was written all over Koji's body language. That probably meant he would have to strike first.

"Or not." Robin murmured, as the other surged forward.

They traded blows in rapid succession, Robin using his small stature and quick nature to his advantage, while Koji did the same with his magnitude of size and strength.

At one point when Robin tried to land a kick to the mans side, Koji grabbed the boys foot and spun, throwing him across the sand. He skidded for a moment, sliding back on his haunches and hissing when his ankle twisted painfully, then jumped right back into the fray.

He caught a high punch and winced at the impact. It wouldn't be surprising if his entire palm bruised. They went into a stalemate as he caught a second, hands locked and pushing against one another. As it became clear that Robin would be the loser, he dropped to his back on the sand, causing the other to over-balance and fall forward. Robin kicked his legs up viciously, hitting below the ribs and hefting up and over, sending Koji flying.

Robin huffed out a breath and rolled back onto his hands and knees, a little winded, and looked back to see Koji slowly getting back up.

"Okay, not done yet. That's cool too." He hopped back up and prepared for round two, when something closed around his injured ankle and shoved it forward.

He bit out a pained curse and looked down, seeing one of his previous opponents, who wasn't as out as he'd thought, smirking up at him as he pin-wheeled, off balance.

"Watch it shrimp!" Koji's voice sounded, much closer than before. Robin snapped his gaze up just in time to see a fist drive straight into his chest, sending him to the ground.

A sharp pain in the back of his head was the only warning to injury as static filled his vision, quickly fading to black.

The first thing that he saw as his vision swam into focus was the ceiling of the tournament grounds.

The first thing he heard was the murmuring of a crowd and the voice of his sister, softly calling his name.

The first thing he felt was an obnoxious pain from the back of his head, a little behind the ear.

"Wha..?" He groaned, staring up in confusion. "W-what happened?" Memories quickly scraped themselves together, reminding him that he probably lost the tournament, since the last thing he remembered was being pretty much punched in the heart.

_Ouch._

"You lost." Toshiro's voice sounded, his person falling into sight a moment later.

"No way man," He said drily, "Couldn't tell from the dirt-nap I just took. Now how, exactly, did I get knocked out?" He slowly sat up, noting that he was surrounded by his friends. The stands had emptied some, though a lot of Shinigami were congregated on the other side of the stadium, probably congratulating whomever won. He mentally cringed. " And please, don't tell me that Koji won. I might actually die of mortification from losing to that tool.

"You hit your head on a rock." Hitsugaya responded, while the others snickered. Robin groaned again, this time from utter embarrassment. Knocked out by a _rock?_ Really?

He reached up to touch the sensitive injury, wincing in pain and pulling back to find his fingers smeared with blood.

"Oh now that's just sad." He tsked, wiping it on the uniform.

"Well on the bright side," His sister chirped, smiling brightly, "You didn't actually lose to Koji, since you were knocked out by a rock and all. And, Koji didn't win!"

"Then who did?" He asked, tilting his head to the side.

"A fifth year girl. Took him out about a minute after you went down."

Well, he thought, there's that at least.

"But I have to say Otouto, your performance was definitely the most memorable. No one expected a first year to come out and kick butt!"

"No one expected him to be laid flat by a rock either." Renji teased, cackling as Robin's entire face lit up red.

"Oh my god." He hissed out, hiding his face in his hands and laying them atop his knees.

_Well, there's always next year_. He thought, cursing inwardly.

Fucking rocks.

* * *

Next installment in the shorts series!

The original ending had been pretty different, but then i forgot what it was and decided to make a little shout out to the 'Injustice: Gods among us' Comics

_Fucking Rocks._

As always, thanks for reading and to those who reviewed on the last chapters!


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